From a Singapore Angle

Part 1|2|3

Its almost unbelievable. On hindsight, the recent flury of articles about blogs (May 13-24) now look like they are meant to build up to this. From ST (May 28) "Insight":

#1 "Will S'pore politics go to the blogs?" by Leslie Koh
#2 "Will every blog have its day in politics? --Blogs, or online diaries, are exploding on the Web. Could blogs have an impact on politics in Singapore one day?" by Leslie Koh and Benjamin Ho.
#3 "Private grouses, public impact" (presumably by the same writers)

Incidentally, Benjamin Ho was the journalist who contacted me during the height of the AcidFlask Affair.

More to follow soon, but a few quick quotes. From the first article:

The intrusion of political reality into the private world of blogs has chilled at least one blogger in Singapore. Lawyer Gilbert Koh took his blog that commented on social, economic and political issues in Singapore offline soon after reading about A*Star's dealings with blogger Chen Jiahao, and after some of his entries were reproduced in a website of an opposition party.

From the second article:

Dealing with blogs

CAN'T IGNORE THEM: 'Blogs... are likely to become regular parts of many political campaigns, although they may be a very small part, especially in places that do not have hotly contested elections.' - ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR BENJAMIN DETENBER of NTU's School of Communication and Information

CAN'T KEEP 'EM DOWN: 'To apply media laws on bloggers is like firing a howitzer at a swarm of mosquitoes. You will... change the configuration for about half a minute, then it will be like you never fired it at all.' - ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR RANDOLPH KLUVER of Singapore Internet Research Centre

DON'T KILL PASSION: 'Many reflect the political passions of authors who care deeply about issues... If we insist that the discussion be gentle, we may thwart the underlying passion.' - ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MARK CENITE of NTU

From the third article--I'm at a loss for words reading this: